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Sunday, September 27

Today I wanted to post a new ColorBar action. My original ColorBar Deluxe action cropped images into a square. This one allows you to crop these images into a 4:6 ratio and also overlays the color bars on top of the image. I like using both.

Why would you want to use this action? If you find an image that has gorgeous colors, simply open the image and run this action and it allows you to pull five colors out and creates a little storyboard. I use this action to pick complimentary colors for my designs (digital paper sets, website backgrounds, textures, etc.) and to create cool storyboards. Nature has a gift for color. :-)

The best part of this action is you can run it on any photo to grab beautiful colors. I used photos from Pixabay to create these storyboards. (roses, bird, fruit)

IMPORTANT NOTES ON RUNNING THIS ACTION! 1. Have your image open before starting this action. Don't have any other images open.2. The first step in this action is to crop your image. If you can't see the crop bars, press Ctrl-0 (zero) to zoom out so you can adjust the crop bars. To zoom back in press the same keystroke again.3. PSE Users: This action might not work the first time you run it in PSE for some crazy reason I don't understand. If your image looks strange, just close it, open the image again, and rerun the action. On my PSE12 it worked perfectly the second run.4. You have to click on the image to grab the colors. If your image looks tiny just Ctrl-0 (zero) to zoom out before clicking on the image.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

Thanks for the 4:6 ration option. It didn't always look the best with the square. Unfortunately though, it took me quite a while to get it to work in PSE 12. I made 5 attempts and then even shut the program and tried again. I only had the one image opened. I could get it to crop but then it kept saying that the 'object layer background' wasn't available . I even tried naming the image layer background but that didn't help either. However, just when I was about to give up, I clicked on Layer then New, then chose 'background from layer' now while it made the bg black (it was a png) it did the trick. Of course that got me thinking that maybe the problem was that I wasn't using a jpg so I tested that theory and it worked perfectly the first time. Sheesh, I should have started with a jpg but just didn't realize there would be a difference.

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My name is Rita and I am a work-at-home/homeschooling Mom to two amazing boys (Duke is 14 and Imp is 11) in Texas and passionate about photography and photo-editing.

If you love using my free CoffeeShop creations and would like to make a donation to Rita the self-professed geek of CoffeeShop, please follow this link! This blog is possible because of your generous support.